What we see now in our patients are modern diseases, stemming from modern ways of eating and a lack of nutrition that is impacting your effectiveness as a practitioner. You can treat these modern diseases – hypoglycemia, insulin-resistance, diabetes, food intolerances, adrenal fatigue, hormonal imbalances – but when the patient is malnourished (which is much more often than you can imagine), the treatment time is much slower.

For example, kidney deficiency is very closely related to adrenal fatigue in Western medicine. We prescribe herbs and acupuncture, and perhaps some lifestyle changes such as meditation. However, did you know that one of the major causes of adrenal fatigue is blood sugar imbalance, which is impacted not just by what the person is eating, but how frequently/infrequently they are eating? When the practitioners in my practice started prescribing specific nutritional supplements and Chinese herbs to support the adrenals, and prescribed a specific style of eating, we saw a dramatic improvement in our patients’ kidney deficiency. Furthermore, their improvement continued even when they stopped taking herbs. Why? Because we had given them nutrition that actually restored their kidneys/adrenals, as well as the tools to help manage it at home.

But why should you be talking about nutrition? Because your patients are already talking about nutrition, even if you aren’t. They’re reading about it, seeing segments on TV, talking to their friends and looking desperately for some magic pill to help them feel better. They’re taking some drugstore multi-vitamin, which is not only synthetic, but has approximately the correct amount of bioavailable nutrition for a gerbil. They’ve probably already been asking you questions about supplements – what to take, is this effective, what will help this condition. You might be having a hard time answering some of these questions because we didn’t learn any of this in TCM school. Your information about modern nutrition is often coming from the same sources as theirs, and while you might know whether or not some of the supplements they’re taking are helpful, you don’t really know how or why.

The ability to build qi and blood is directly related to the nutritional health of a patient. Herbs can improve the body’s function with what nutrition it has. While that can be effective, the molecular building blocks for blood and tissue (amino acids, vitamin complexes, essential fats) comes from what we eat. You may have some people who eat their vegetables or know enough to eat organic vegetables. However, did you know that vegetables harvested these days are as much as 40 percent less nutritious than they were 50 years ago, even organic ones? Did you know that omega-3s used to be widely found in meats, but because most animals are no longer grass-fed, they are sadly deficient, and then so are we? Or that besides vegetables, the most nutrient-dense food that exists is organ meats?

Even if patients ate perfectly, they would oftentimes still be deficient, and that’s where having some understanding of nutrition and supplementation will help. Patients love nutrition; they know they’re deficient and don’t eat well, and they are already interested in taking supplements. Having an understanding of nutrition, combined with your background in herbs, will allow you to help correct them if they are self-prescribing. Since you may be the only doctor they’re seeing, you will be able to see interactions between drugs, herbs and supplements. If you start prescribing nutritional supplements that make a difference the patient can clearly see, you will not only have very high patient compliance, but those patients will return again and again for more supplements. They don’t do that nearly as often for herbal prescriptions. In our practice, we have a full Chinese herbal pharmacy, yet at least half of what we prescribe is nutritional supplements. Why?

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is being widely used to treat A(H1N1) flu patients in China, a senior health official confirmed Monday.

“China has been, so far, the only country worldwide to introduce traditional medicine, particularly the TCM, which had been practiced for thousands of years in the nation in the treatment of diseases,” said Ren Minghui, director of the international cooperation department of the Ministry of Health (MOH).

As of late yesterday, health authorities had announced 39 confirmed A(H1N1) flu cases and one additional suspected case on the Chinese mainland.

The latest six confirmed cases were reported yesterday – three in Beijing, two in Fujian province and one in Guangdong province.

“Currently, TCM has shown certain efficacy in all confirmed patients under treatment and a total of nine have already fully recovered and been discharged from the hospital,” said Jiang Liangduo, a TCM expert at the Beijing-based Dongzhimen Hospital Affiliated to Beijing University of Chinese Medicine.

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Traditional medicine used to battle new flu A（H1N1） Influenza Outbreak

Jiang is part of a MOH-initiated special taskforce comprising dozens of TCM experts charged with looking for ways to contain the flu through a TCM approach.

“A great variety of both the ready-to-use and unprocessed TCM, mainly herbals, has been used in the treatment,” he noted.

Personal conditions of the patients, including gender, age, and symptoms, would be considered in deciding specific treatment method in terms of dosage and choices of different herbs, he said.

The first reference to infectious disease appeared in Huang Di Nei Jing (Yellow Emperor’s Inner Classic), compiled in the first or second century CE. This text discussed re bing (hot disease), which refers to the various types of infectious disease.

•Food allergy herbal formula-2. Known as FAHF-2, this pill (not available in stores) is based on a 2,000-year-old Chinese remedy. It contains nine botanicals, including ginseng and oil made from cinnamon tree bark. It is being tested for peanut, tree nut, fish and shellfish allergies.

Building tolerance can take a year or more, and parents with children in the studies must drive them to a research center every other week. For a few, the round trip is hundreds of miles — a small price, in parents’ eyes.

“They will do anything humanly possible” to overcome their children’s food allergies, says Stacie Jones (no relation to Charles Jones), an Arkansas Children’s Hospital allergy specialist who helps lead several trials. “It is a testament to their commitment.”

Arthritis is known in Chinese medicine as ‘’Bi’’ syndrome, Bi meaning painful obstruction. We say it is the result of the body being ‘’invaded’’ by external climatological factors such as wind, cold, heat and/or dampness. The symptoms manifested by the individual depend on which external pathogenic factor is strongest. Following is a listing of the four main patterns of Bi syndrome.

Wind Bi: Exposure to wind for prolonged time is an important cause of the Wind pattern of arthritis. Any Wind pattern is characterised by movement of symptoms hence its alternative name wandering Bi, last week it was shoulder pain, this week it’s the knees. There is joint soreness and pain which can move from joint to joint. Joint movement is limited, and there is often fever, as well as aversion to wind or windy weather.

Cold Bi: Joints which are cold to touch and frequently swollen too are referred to as cold Bi. With this type of By, the pain has a fixed location rather than moving about. One can get relief from applying heat to the area and exposure to cold will definitely aggravate the condition. Damp Bi: The damp pattern of arthritis is characterised by pain, soreness and swelling in muscles and joints, with a feeling of heaviness and numbness in the limbs. The pain has a fixed location and is aggravated by damp weather. When these patients move to a hot dry climate they often feel better.

Hot Bi: This type of Bi is commonly seen in Rheumatoid arthritis and gouty arthritis. It is characterised by severe pain and hot-red-swollen joints. Pain tends to be worse at night. Other symptoms may include fever thirst and anxiety.

I have classified arthritis into nice neat groups, in clinical practice it is not really like that and I would often see joint pain which is a mixture, in fact this tends to be the norm rather than the exception. Different types of arthritis respond different to acupuncture. However acupuncture is an excellent treatment choice for all types of arthritis because arthritis is characterised by obstruction and acupuncture moves obstruction!

More and more scientifically designed clinical studies support the use of acupuncture for arthritis. A recent study examined the effects of acupuncture on 32 osteoarthritis patients waiting for knee replacement surgery. After 9 weeks, patients receiving acupuncture treatment reported a decrease in pain, while pain increased in untreated patients. The patients with acupuncture treatment were able to walk farther and faster, compared to the untreated group.

Success of the treatment depends also on how effectively acupuncture can re-harmonise the body. It the arthritis is very deep-seated then at best, acupuncture may be able to offer pain relief and help the disease from progressing further. If the systemic imbalance is not so severe, then acupuncture may be able to offer a cure.

If acupuncture is not your cup of tea, a literal cup of tea may be just what the doctor ordered to prevent the flu.

Chinese herbal medicine is the oldest form of alternative medicine, with written records dating back nearly 3,000 years.

“Back in the old days of herbal medicine the doctors used themselves as guinea pigs to learn the affects of different herbs,” Jones said. “Those fellows had cast iron stomachs.”

During the course of his studies, Jones learned the properties of thousands of medicinal herbs. He discovered how to blend herbs according to the size and strength of the person and the condition being treated. He’s a firm believer in the use of herbs and vitamins to prevent the flu and other illness.

“To prevent the flu, use herbs that bolster the immune system,” Jones said.

Although there are dozens of herbs that boost immunity, two are especially noteworthy:

Used for thousands of years, certain healing properties of the Chinese herb Huang qi ( astragalus membranaceus root) are being confirmed by western medical science methods.

Recent research has confirmed that astragalus contains antioxidants and has antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties. It lowers blood pressure and increases endurance in some situations. The chemical properties of astragalus have been studied and the herb shows promise in enhancing immunity in HIV sufferers.

Chinese ren shen, or ginseng, is a common root that enhances healing and rejuvenation. It helps to replenish body fluids and depleted energy. Ginseng also helps to remove toxins from the body.

“Despite being an ancient practice, herbal medicine is extremely precise and will help a person to avoid getting sick because herbs can help to build up the immune system,” Jones said. “It’s best to start using the herbs months before, but it’s never too late to start building yourself up for the next onslaught.”

The Chinese herb Ganoderma kills small-cell lung cancer cells that are resistant to many chemotherapy drugs, and it may prove a life-saving addition to current cancer therapy, according to a new study in Cancer Letters.

Small-cell lung cancer is particularly difficult to treat because the cancer spreads rapidly throughout the body, rather than forming large tumors that can be removed surgically. To treat this cancer, doctors typically turn to chemotherapy, which attacks cancer cells throughout the body.

Chemotherapy can have severe side effects though, because it attacks healthy cells as well as cancerous ones. And over time, lung cancer can become resistant to the effects of chemotherapy, rendering it virtually ineffective. “The chemotherapy would still work, but you’d have to use a dose that would be so toxic that the patient could not tolerate it,” explains lead study author David Sadava, PhD, Pritzker Foundation Professor of Biology at the Keck Science Center in Claremont, California and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Molecular Medicine at the City of Hope Cancer Center in Duarte, California.

Patients who have been told their cancer is not treatable often turn to alternative therapies, including herbs. The mushroom extract Ganoderma lucidum is one of the most popular of these herbs. It is widely available in health food stores as the Japanese herbal remedy, Reishi and the Chinese herb, Ling Zhi.

Ganoderma lucidum has been studied for its effects on leukemia, as well as on cancers of the breast, bladder, colon, and prostate. For the first time, Dr. Sadava and his team set out to investigate its effects on small-cell lung cancer. They also decided to look at 20 of the more than 250 other Ganoderma species in existence, to see if they too might have a benefit.

The researchers took extracts of these herbs and tested them on three different types of cells: drug-sensitive small-cell lung cancer, drug-resistant small-cell lung cancer, and normal lung cells. They discovered that Ganoderma lucidum, as well as eight other Ganoderma species killed lung cancer cells. Cancer cells responded to the herb much in the same way as they would react to chemotherapy drugs. Yet unlike chemotherapy drugs, which can also be toxic to healthy cells, herbal extracts were more deadly to cancer cells than to normal cells, indicating that they have some ability to specifically target cancer.

Li said that taking the cue from China, there is an increased awareness of the beneficial effects of using TCM as a complement.

“TCM has yielded new methods of cancer prevention and treatment.

“Cancer cells grow and divide rapidly, and are invasive. While effective at killing cancer cells, traditional cancer treatments such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy can cause changes to normal body functions and the immune system,” he said.

“Anaemia, infections, nausea, vomiting, anorexia, stomatitis, and ulcers are just some examples.

“Other fast-dividing cells, like those responsible for hair growth, can also be affected by the treatment, resulting in hair loss,” he explained.

“After numerous rounds of chemotherapy, the drug loses its efficacy. What Chinese herbs do is to make the body more receptive to chemotherapy by restoring sensitivity and making treatment more effective.”

TCM concentrates on rebuilding the patient’s natural immune system to fight harmful cells and also aims to minimise pain and discomfort caused by the cancer, or the chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

“TCM practitioners believe that cancer is a lifestyle disease determined by habits, diet, exercise and smoking.

“Medicine is prescribed to patients only after the overall symptoms are ascertained.”

While it may be difficult to believe, the body wants to be healthy. Generally speaking, the human organism (or any living creature) is designed to thrive and function in an optimal state. Otherwise, we would not survive past perhaps a few years after birth.

So, what is the best way to keep our bodies in balance.

The answer may be found in acupuncture.

While this practice has been around for well over 2000 years, Traditional Chinese Medicine, or TCM, has only been recognized here in the United States in the last 30 years. It first gained notoriety in 1972 after President Nixon opened talks with China. James Reston, a New York Times journalist covering the event, had a medical emergency and underwent an appendectomy with acupuncture being used as the only anesthetic.

Today you, or someone you know, has been treated by acupuncture. What you may not know, however, is the huge range of afflictions that acupuncture can treat. Aside from back and neck-pain, acupuncture is recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO) to successfully treat a wide variety of illnesses including:

* Asthma/Allergies: Chronic asthma, allergic rhinitis, sinus infections, sinus congestion.
* Emotional Disorders: Stress, panic and anxiety attacks, depression, insomnia
* Digestive Disorders: Heartburn, irritable bowel syndrome, chronic constipation/diarrhea.
* Pre and Post Natal Care / Pregnancy: Infertility, labor-induction (shorten delivery time), reduce morning-sickness symptoms including nausea
* Other: Dysmenorrhea, PMS, headaches, TMJ, tennis elbow, Bell’s Palsy, sciatica, weight loss, drug addiction

An herb used in Chinese medicine — the Astragalus root — contains a chemical that could be used to complement antiretroviral therapy or possibly even replace it, suggested Rita Effros, a member of the UCLA AIDS Institute, which made the finding. Effros, co-author of the study, is a professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.

The study will be published in the Nov. 15 print edition of the Journal of Immunology and is now available online.

Astragalus, also known as milk vetch, has long been used in traditional Chinese medicine, usually in combination with other herbs, to strengthen the immune system. It is still widely used in China to treat chronic hepatitis and as an adjunct therapy for cancer patients.

Astragalus has also been used to combat heart disease, as well as to prevent and treat common colds and upper respiratory infections.

The AIDS Institute study examined the relationship between TAT2, a chemical in Astragalus, and telomeres. Every chromosome has a telomere at its end that has a protective function — similar to the plastic tip that keeps a shoelace from unraveling.